The Vigilantes Collection

by Lake, Keri

  “You were under the wrong impression.”

  “Well, I’m afraid I can’t …. I can’t do that, Mister Wolfe.” He stood up from his chair, tapping his fingers on the desk as he rounded it. “See, I already have Nicoleta. So, I’m afraid your information is useless to me at this point. I’m gonna have to ask you to leave before I call security.”

  Bingo.

  “Call them. I’m sure they’d love to hear what I’m about to show you.” I clicked on the recording of Dawn’s confession from the night before, watching his face sour—with surprise and a small bit of shock, at a guess.

  “Doesn’t prove anything. Could be anyone.”

  “Maybe not. But I had some friends of mine do some digging around, and they came back with a username: Voyeur-two-ICU. Linked back to your fucking email.” I laughed, stuffing the phone back into my coat pocket and clicking the record button to on. “Fucking amateur. Christ, every good criminal knows not to link an email.”

  His face turned ghost white, and I watched his neck bob with a swallow. “What do you want?”

  “You commissioned the video for Eden O’Malley. Didn’t you, Doctor Emberle?”

  He shook his finger at me and crossed his arms. “I didn’t commission the attempted murder. That was not me.”

  “Answer the question.”

  “Yes. Okay? Is that what you want from me? Are we done here?”

  “Nah, we’re just getting started. See, I sent that recording to some of the best hackers in the world. And, uh …” I tugged my phone out of my pocket once more and clicked ‘send’. “Now they have your confession to go along with it.”

  He flinched and rolled his shoulders. “You’re quite slick, aren’t you?”

  I shrugged, stuffing the phone back into my pocket. “It’s a gift, really. Although, for a doctor, you’re not that smart.”

  “What. Do. You. Want?”

  Straightening in my chair, I gripped the arms of it like a king taking his throne. “I want you to release Eden and wipe out her medical record. I want you to destroy the videos for Dawn Richardson, as well as Eden’s. And if you’re a good little bitch, I’ll tell my friends not to beat you up after school. Deal?”

  “What guarantee do I have?”

  “No guarantee, I’m afraid. But your odds are significantly improved if you do what the fuck I tell you. Your alternative isn’t as clean.”

  The flinch of his eye seemed to be a nervous tick. “Is that a threat?”

  “It’s whatever the fuck will get your happy ass on that phone and have her released from this shithole.”

  A mirthless smile flashed across his face, but quickly disappeared as he leaned forward in his chair. “I have to say … well played. I had no idea you were so … manipulative.”

  “Cunning. I prefer cunning. Has a better ring to it. And I didn’t know you were such a sick and pathetic piece of shit, either, but here we are.”

  Chin high, as if he had any right to be proud, he lifted the phone and dialed a number. Could’ve been security. I was ready for that, too.

  “This is Doctor Emberle. I need to call in a voice order for Eden O’Malley. Thank you.” He kept his eyes on me in the pause that followed. “Is this the nurse for Eden O’Malley? I need to have her ready for discharge within the next ten minutes. Have transport wheel her down to the front entrance for pick up. I’ll be there to sign all the necessary papers. Thank you.”

  As soon as he set down the phone, I tipped my head until his eyes returned to mine. “Wasn’t that easy?”

  “What now?”

  “Her record. Trash it.”

  He turned to a file cabinet, thumbing through them, and lifted one of the folders from inside, which he held up for me to see her name printed on the white label. Into the shredder beside the cabinet, he fed each of the papers from the file, then opened it, showing that it had been emptied.

  “And the video of Dawn Richardson.”

  “I don’t keep digital copies. They’re traceable.” He shuffled across the room to a safe, dialed the numbers, and opened it to reveal a stack of encased DVD’s inside. The sight of them coiled my stomach—about a half dozen videos of different girls, I guessed.

  “All of them. I want all those fuckers destroyed.”

  “These girls agreed to do this, Mister Wolfe. They gave their consent.”

  “Except Eden. Why is that?”

  Jaw shifting, he sniffed. “She was a girl from the trailer park. Been abused her whole life. Probably wouldn’t—”

  I pushed up from the chair, and before he could finish his sentence, I hammered my fist in his face, knocking his glasses onto the floor.

  Raising his hands to shield himself from the next punch, he pulled the videos from the safe and slammed them, one at a time, onto the floor.

  I stomped on them for added measure, smiling as each one cracked under my boot.

  With a huff, he slid his slightly bent glasses back onto his face and stared down toward the mess. “How will I know when you’ve kept your end of the bargain?”

  “You won’t. You’ll wake up alive and breathing each day that you manage to keep your dick in your pants. Until the day you don’t. That’ll be the day you have the entire city of Detroit hunting you down.” I stepped aside and swung out my hand for him to pass. “Shall we? I believe you have some papers to sign, Doc.”

  Not bothering to hide the smug ass smile on my face, I followed him down to the lobby, my body humming with excitement.

  In front of the entrance, Eden sat in a wheelchair, wearing a gown, with a white blanket draped over lap. With her head slumped to the side, she stared off with a blank expression.

  “She’s still quite sedated.” The nurse handed off the papers to the doctor. “All she had on at admission was a nightgown. She should be alert within a couple of hours.”

  I knelt down in front of her and lifted her hand to kiss her knuckles, drawing her eyes to mine.

  “Dax?” A hoarse weakness carried on the tone of her voice, and tears filled her spacey-looking eyes.

  “I’m taking you home, baby.” I pushed to a stand, accepting her bag of clothes from the nurse, while the doc signed off on all the papers.

  “She’s all yours, Mister Wolfe.” The smile on the doc’s face looked fake, and I had to bite back the urge to knock those perfect white teeth out of his mouth.

  I didn’t waste any time wheeling her out of there.

  Coming to a stop alongside the ‘Cuda, I threw back the passenger door and lifted her inside. An orderly wheeled the chair back in for me, and I rounded the vehicle, smiling as I caught sight of that prick doctor standing in the window.

  I flipped him off and fell into the driver seat. After firing up the ‘Cuda, I threaded my fingers between Eden’s and lifted our clasped hands for another kiss.

  Like the life had been pumped back inside of me, I sped off, getting as far away from the hellhole, as fast as I could.

  42

  Nicoleta

  My throat felt as if it’d been stuffed with socks, as I swallowed past the dryness. Sterile scents of bleach and disinfectant gave way to something woodsy and delicious. Familiar.

  I opened my eyes to a dim lit room, instead of the too-bright blue walls. Turning my head brought me staring at Dax, slumped over in a chair beside the bed, his head propped against his fist. The slow and steady rise and fall of his chest told me he’d fallen deep into sleep.

  I couldn’t hold back the tears brimming in my eyes. With an intense craving to touch him, I pushed off the bed, a slight tingling in my legs as I came to a stand. Two tumbling steps forward, and I caught myself on the arm of his chair, startling him awake.

  He reached out to grab me, and I crawled onto his lap.

  Massive arms enveloped me, when he pulled me into his chest, where I rested my head and broke down, letting every hope-crushing moment of being trapped inside that tomb trample over my heart. Skin wet with my tears, he sat holding me, not saying a single word until it w
as out of me. Until the icy surface thawed with his heat and everything poured out of me like a broken dam.

  Guilt. Shame. Fear.

  All of it escaped me, leaching into his skin with the drying of my tears.

  I lifted my head, rising up to my knees atop his thighs, and stared down at him, a frantic need beating through me with such recklessness, it frightened me.

  Was I dreaming? Was it the drugs casting illusions inside my head, ones so real I could feel the stubble of his face beneath my palms and taste the scent of his cologne on the air—a fantasy so vivid, I didn’t want to wake. I wanted to stay in that suspended place.

  I kissed his chest, running my hands over the small patches of hair, and up to his broad shoulders, to the back of his neck. I needed to touch every part of him in case I had fallen into a dream. Every inch of his skin would be committed to memory, the weight of his arms banded around me, and the steel of his thighs below me. Tugging him into me, I kissed him with all the desperation and fervor beating through my veins, until I was lightheaded. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”

  His palms skated over my back, heating my skin, but failing calm me. “You’re shaking like crazy right now.”

  The incessant trembling wouldn’t stop—a culmination of excitement and fear battling inside of me.

  “Please don’t make me go back there. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for—”

  “Shhh. Relax, baby.” He stroked my hair and kissed me. “Calm down. You’re not going anywhere.”

  “Is this real?”

  His face blurred behind more tears, and at his nod, I smiled through another sob and wrapped my arms around him, turning my face to let him kiss my neck and rest his head against my cheek. In the pause that followed, I breathed. Slow and easy.

  “Are you hungry? Or thirsty?”

  I shook my head in response. “No. I just want you right now.”

  “I’ve been a fucking mess without you.” Both hands gripping my face, he dragged me to his lips. “I’m not letting you go again, Lynx. I don’t care if that makes me just like them. I can’t do that shit again.”

  “I won’t leave you again. I promise.” A tearful wheeze of laughter escaped me as I stroked a hand down his stubbled cheek. “You’re really here.” I kissed him again, violent, needy, breathing hard through my nose, as I savored the taste of his lips.

  “Tell me that cocksucker didn’t lay a hand on you. I’ll kill him if he did.”

  “Forget him. Forget all of them,” I whispered, reaching down into the narrow gap in his pants and gripped hold of his hard cock. “No one else is ever going to touch me again. Except you. Only you.” Another round of tears muddled my vision, and I slid my hand up and down his shaft, toying with the piercing at the tip of his cock. “I need you, Dax. I need this. I want to feel you again.”

  At his nudge, I raised myself up to allow him to slide his jeans down his thighs, and he lined his tip at my entrance beneath the gown.

  He skimmed the balls of the piercing across my clit, up and down the slit, and I closed my eyes, taking in the soft tickle of metal against my sensitive flesh. With a firm grip on my hips, he lowered me onto his cock, groaning as I impaled his shaft, ass to thighs, the piercing gliding along my walls, until it nailed a pressure spot up inside me. A flush of heat diffused through my muscles, and I tipped my head back, savoring the tight stretch of his cock filling me.

  Fumbling at the back of my neck drew my eyes open, as he unfastened the tie and slipped the gown down over my breasts, his eyes hungry. Gaze feasting on me.

  That look had become my addiction.

  Strange how sex with Dax had become an exercise in power for me. He made me feel strong, untouchable, and utterly fuckable, the way his eyes devoured my flesh. A rare species of male, whose virility was so palpable he hardly had to touch me at all to turn me on, and everywhere he did touch me, my skin blossomed beneath his hands, becoming radiant and primed to his fingertips. I felt worthy when I was with him. Desired.

  It made me wish I could’ve gone back to the younger me, at age fourteen when I’d been certain all men were rapists and good men didn’t exist. I’d have told that girl to hang on, because one day she’d meet a man who’d change her whole fucking world.

  He circled his hips, stirring the barbell inside of me, intensifying the trembles already hammering my muscles. “Look at you. How fucking beautiful you are,” he said, as easily as striking the match that set my world to flames. So unwitting to the magic of his husky voice and the rousing effect it had on my body, every word that poured from his lips like gasoline, intensifying the fire inside of me.

  I felt beautiful under his stare. Somehow, he’d found a way to reach inside of me, ignoring all the ugly for the rare parts I kept hidden, and held them in the palm of his hand like gold.

  His fingertips traced over my nipples in the same tempo that he rocked into me, the light tickle trampled by his pinching and tugging.

  I arched, adding just enough resistance to every tug to feel a twinge of pain, and had to curl my fingers around the chair as the two sensations collided inside of me.

  “C’mon, baby, tell me what you want.”

  Eyes still closed, I kept my head tipped back and smiled. “You. I want you.”

  “You got me. And I got you. So tell me what happens next.”

  “You fuck me.” I circled my hips, as he pumped slow and easy into me, creating a languorous sort of ecstasy, my nipples hard as he tugged them to a stand. “You fuck me so hard, I forget everything else.”

  He slowed his pace, taunting me. Teasing. Tormenting as only Dax could, with that bastardly bit of metal at the tip of his cock that gifted him the power to send my body into a state of sexual paralysis, suspended somewhere between pleasure and sheer agony.

  “And then what?”

  The mounting pressure, the need to be tangled in the sheets with him, pulled at my core. “Dax! Please!”

  A sharp sting radiated into my breasts as he twisted my nipples. “And then what?”

  “You’re gonna fuck me slow. And long. However long you want.”

  “However long I want.” The amusement in his voice carried a wicked clip, and the sound of his chuckle rippled down my spine. “Baby, I’m going to fuck you all night. Every room is going to smell like sex, and every surface will have your ass propped against it at some point. You’re gonna be weak and exhausted by the time I’m done with you, Eden.” His mouth latched onto my breast, the delicious tug of his suckling like a string to my core, sending my hips upward. “But I’m going to keep fucking you because I’m a selfish, gluttonous prick who won’t stop until I’ve had every last drop.” He parted the same attention to the other breast, eyes on me, flicking his tongue over the hardened peaks.

  “Then, we … shouldn’t waste time … getting on that.” With his cock still teasing in and out of me, I spoke through choppy breaths, gripping tighter to the chair, dizzy with want.

  I only caught a flash of his shameless grin, before he drove his hips up into me, damned near bucking me off the chair, if not for my tight grasp on the arms of it.

  Hands wrapped around my shoulders, he held me steady as he hammered his hips beneath me, his eyes rapt on mine all the while.

  I watched him, too. The moments when his cockiness slipped and his brows came together in pleading, before dipping to something stern and determined. Something I wanted to bottle and drink in the moments I felt cold and scared and lost.

  As the visuals pulled at my mind—of Tesarik, Jasper, Kenny, and every other man who’d used and abused me, even Dmitry—Dax’s eyes lured me back to the present. Back to safety.

  I let him draw me into him, until the two of us crashed together, clawing, scratching, biting, our bodies slick with the sweat of our battle.

  He fucked me in every sense, shattering the ice with each drive of his hips. Destroying everything I’d come to believe about men and their cruel nature. Like a warrior, he traversed the barren plains of my heart and
slammed his sword into its surface. Claiming me for himself.

  Hands smoothing down my body, he dug his fingers into my ass, bobbing me against his cock, sending that silver ball of metal pounding against my most sensitive spot. My body seized as he hit it, over and over and over in a punishing cadence, until my muscles had become so taut, I could scarcely breathe. Arms and legs quivering with tension, I fought to hold on, stretched over his thighs, gripping and sliding along the edge as he brought me closer and closer to climax. Snarled curses vibrated across my skin, while his teeth lodged into my throat, holding me as captive as prey.

  A thrill rippled through me like flames melting my insides into liquid rapture, intoxicating me until my grip faltered and I couldn’t hold on anymore.

  With the final thrust of his hips, I surrendered to the jolts of ecstasy that spiraled up my back and exploded in a wash of tingles. I cried out as his cock swelled and stretched, then finally ruptured with his own release.

  He cursed and bruised my flesh, his fingers waxing over my slick skin, as he banged out the final jets, pulsing inside of me.

  I slowed my gyrations.

  His grip slackened.

  Swallowing past the dryness in my throat, I fought to catch my breath and sagged against him. For a moment, we sat breathing, and with my ear to his chest, I listened to the wild pounding of his heart. The music of his body that played on as an encore to his finale.

  Once my body finally calmed, I pushed up to feel him wrap his arms around me and draw me in as if to kiss me. He didn’t though. In the pause, we stared at each other, his cock still deep inside of me. As connected as we could possibly be.

  I could feel something foreign blossom within me. A warmth I’d longed for all my life, but failed to understand. The craving I’d searched to quell with every pink pill I’d swallowed. As I stared back into his eyes, brimming with so much more than lust and desire, I knew exactly what it was that tugged inside my chest.

  “I love you, Eden,” he whispered, squeezing the back of my neck. “I love you so fucking much.”